Plans are afoot to drill a well that will use fracking technology only a mile from a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The parties involved say they are unconcerned, despite evidence showing fracking increases incidence of earthquakes.

"We’re not aware of any potential impacts and don’t expect
any," said Jennifer Young, spokesperson for plant owner
First Energy told Pennsylvania’s Herald Standard. "We see no
reason to be particularly concerned."

Environmental authorities approved plans to construct a shale gas
well near the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport
earlier this month. State rules require any such well to be more
than 500 feet from the edge of plant territory, though data
indicates that there are no fracking wells that close to nuclear
power stations anywhere in the US.

Fracking – or hydraulic fracturing, in full – is a
recently-adopted extraction technique, which uses pressurized
fluid to crack open impermeable materials deep underground,
allowing gas or oil to escape.

It has been linked with a magnitude 4.0 earthquake in Ohio last
year, as well as several seismic incidents in Texas and Canada
just this autumn.

The US Geological Service has warned that the procedure can cause
earthquakes, whose severity and frequency will only become
obvious once fracking is more established.

A 2010 report by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) listed
Unit 1 at the Beaver Valley Power Station as facing the
fifth-highest risk of earthquake out of all reactors in the
entire United States.

But the NRC says the new well is none of their business.

“Our regulations do not speak to off-site wells,” said
NRC spokesperson Neil Sheehan. “Our focus is on on-site
activities.”

First Energy officials insist that the plant is constructed to
withstand a 5.8-magnitude earthquake, which is stronger than has
ever been recorded in Pennsylvania. They also say that the safety
of the station has been re-evaluated in the wake of last year’s
Fukushima nuclear accident, which resulted partly from an
earthquake.

Republican-governed Pennsylvania has drilled 3,000 gas wells in
the past two years, and has given out 2,000 more permits this
year alone.

Before the latest controversy, the state's environmental groups
expressed anxiety about the environmental damage and potential
water pollution caused by fracking.

Some countries, such as France, have banned fracking entirely –
but in the US, it's booming in the United States. It now makes up
more than a third of total gas supply, turning America into the
world’s biggest gas producer, alongside Russia.